Building Effective Leadership Teams: A Practitioner’s Look

Leadership Teams

The Essential Supports for School Improvement ; Consortium on Chicago School Research, 2006: http://ccsr.uchicago.edu

What is the Leadership Team? Leadership Team (LT) What is the Leadership Team? Goal Setting Resource Management Shared Leadership Leadership Team

Goal Setting The principal and leadership team collaborate to establish and communicate instructional goals for school success. The principal leads the school community in creating and revising a vision for the school that is informed by the community context. The leadership team sets high expectations for teaching, learning, and leading and fosters an environment where staff are free to take risks. The principal and leadership team are knowledgeable about instructional best practices and research; they expect and support high-quality instruction in every classroom

Resource Management The leadership team allocates and manages resources to support the school’s instructional program. The leadership team effectively allocates and manages the school’s resources – people, time, funds, and materials – to address school priorities and students’ needs. The school community evaluates and plans school programs and policies based on their contribution toward reaching school goals. Teachers use other staff, classroom volunteers, and family resources at home to maximize the amount of individualized instruction students receive.

Shared Leadership School staff share leadership responsibilities and participate in decision making that advances the school’s mission. The leadership team empowers staff and holds them accountable for results, developing a plan for leadership succession.   Teachers and students assume leadership roles outside of the classroom, actively participate in the school improvement process, and take ownership of resulting setbacks and successes. The leadership team reflects the varied perspectives in the school; the principal taps into staff members’ interests and areas of expertise to strengthen school programs.

Change Agent Role: a skilled community coordinator is the key to developing an effective community of practice, * (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2003) A Identify important issues to focus the ILT’s work Plan and facilitate ILT events/activities B Informally link ILT members in order to broker knowledge exchanges Manage the boundary between the ILT and the faculty/school Foster individual learning C Build the practice for group learning knowledge base, lessons learned, best practices, tools and methods, and learning events Assess the health of the ILT and its contribution to the school and the members.

School Leadership Principal & Change Agent K-5 Team Leads Counselor & Family Resource Center Content Coordinators School Administrative Manager

The School-Level Strategy School Leadership Team Set Standards & Expectations for Leadership Provide Research-Based & Effective Instruction in Support of State and District Standards Support Instruction in the Classroom Supervision & Monitoring of Instruction Use Data for Planning & Accounting Engage Families & Community

Setting Expectations for Achievement First learning expectations Review available data Make connection for establishing goal for improving student achievement Establish curriculum benchmarks Discuss formative, interim and summative assessment strategies

Use Program of Studies and Core Curriculum Map Providing Research-Based and Effective Instruction in Support of State and District Standards Use Program of Studies and Core Curriculum Map Grade-level team discussion/selection of research- based intervention programs in reading and math (to best support lower achieving students) Discussion/selection of research-based programs to best support higher achieving students

Supporting Instruction in the Classroom Attend weekly collaborative team meetings Analyze student work and student data Develop an intervention program using research- based materials Fund professional development for embedded PD within the building Allocate funding for specific instructional goals Schedule daily common planning times

Supervision and Monitoring of Instruction Principal makes routine classroom visits to observe instruction and feedback Teachers participate in peer observation and feedback Teachers participate in collaborative teaching and assessment Principal routinely reviews lesson plans and provides feedback

Engaging Families and Community Send academic achievement reports to parents regarding their child’s progress School sends home monthly publication to families and community Classroom teacher send home weekly newsletter and/or reports Develop online interactive webpage for information Coordinate monthly activities to bring families and community into the building

Using Data for Planning and Accountability Use multiple data sources to identify academic achievement gaps Use Classroom Assessment System & Community Access Dashboard for Education (CASCADE) and other assessment tools to ascertain achievement levels, determine benchmarks, appropriate intervention, and redirect instructional strategies

The Next Level of LT Weekly Collaborative Team Meetings Use of evidence on student performance has moved to: Analysis of student learning patterns Higher order questions abut why particular instructional practice are or are not working Discussions about teaching and learning are grounded in evidence and analysis; rather than opinion and preconceptions Shift accountability from the individual teacher to the teaching community

Turning Around Low-Performing Schools: Planning Template for Working With Schools * Do What Works from the Department of Education

Activity How would you use Leadership Teams with a strong principal? How would you use Instructional Leadership with a strong principal?